The Dardanelle Sand Lizards (12-2) played spoiler in the championship game of the Paris tournament Dec. 29 as they defeated the host Paris Eagles 73-51.

"This was a great game for us in terms of attitude and effort. Our guys played great team basketball on both ends of the floor," Dardanelle head coach Shane Thurman said. "Allen Taylor came in the game and gave us a big lift on the defensive end. He is becoming a lock-down defender for our team."

Octavious May, Chris Keith and Macy Thompson were named to the all-tournament team and Will McCormick was named the tournament's most valuable player.

The Mustangs fell to a very athletic England ball club 62-57 in the Regions Holiday Classic Friday Dec. 28. The Mustangs were scheduled to open the Classic with Kirby but due to the wintry weather the game was cancelled.

The game was back and forth the entire four periods as the Mustangs trailed 31-30 at the half, on a last-second shot before the buzzer. Buford led all scores with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Carter added 17 points and sophmore guard Tyler Folger added 15.

Missed free throws and lay-ups proved to be the difference as England was able to hold on for the victory.

"We played very well considering how athletic England was. They played very agressive full-court, man-to-man defense. Tyler Folger and [Charley] Buford had good ball games for us, along with Shelby Carter. [Jacob] Goodwin, our leading rebounder, was not able to play tonight and Buford had horrible flu like symptons," Ola head coach Josh Harrison said. "We still had our chances, but England pulled away on free throws in the end. I was very pleased with the effort, and we are improving against the man-to-man pressure."

The Mustangs pulled out a 48-45 victory Dec. 14 at 5AA Conference opponent Bigelow. Ola was able to hold on after leading by as many as 14 points in the second half. Junior guard Shelby Carter led all scores with 27 points followed by junior forward Charley Buford with seven. Senior forward Jacob Goodwin led the Mustangs in rebounding with 13 on the night.

Hendrix gets hot in second half

CLARKSVILLE - After holding a slight 34-26 edge at halftime, Hendrix College shot 58 percent from the field and outscored the Lady Eagles 42-27 in the second half to earn a 76-53 non-conference victory Dec. 31.

The Warriors (7-3, 1-1) raced out to an early lead in the first half, but Ozarks (1-8, 1-3) eventually found their rhythm and chiseled into a 10-point deficit. It was an Olivia Fisher jumper that closed the gap to 19-17 at the 6:03 mark. Two minutes later, Emma Cantele cut it to 23-22 when she hit a pair of free throws. Hendrix, however, went on a 10-4 spurt to take a 34-26 lead into intermission.

Hendrix would build on their 8-point advantage and increase it to 41-26 at the 17:48 mark of the second half. The Warriors would maintain a double-digit advantage over the next four minutes before the Lady Eagles would make a run.

Savannah Carter made a layup to make it 46-37 with 13:29 left. At the 10:51 mark, Emma Bottorff nailed a three-pointer to narrow Ozarks' deficit to 48-40. Hendrix answered with 10-2 run over the next three minutes to go up 60-44.

Ozarks had trouble getting back into the game, as Hendrix hit 14-of-24 (58 percent) from the floor in the second half. Ozarks, meanwhile, hit only 9-of-27 (33 percent) from the field in the final 20 minutes of action. Making matters more difficult for the Lady Eagles was Christina Byler, who finished with 35 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for Hendrix.

Fisher led Ozarks with 12 points, and Carter added 11.

Ozarks will travel to Abilene, Texas, to face McMurry University in American Southwest Conference play Saturday.